Citizen Historian Sourcebook

Back

Civil War

First Public Address

Susan B. Anthony, Seneca Falls (1848)

Introduction

Edited by Avellaka Arvison (2021)

It took nearly 100 years for women to get the right to vote in the United States. The movement started in 1848 when many people gathered at Seneca Falls to discuss the topic of women's rights. Over decades, women's suffrage activists would campaign, rally, and push lawmakers to address their concerns. On August 18, 1920, women gained the same suffrage rights as men when the 19th amendment was ratified. Many activists and reformers, including Susan B. Anthony, took part in this fight over the course of many years. Anthony was born in Adams, Massachusetts on February 15, 1820. Her father was a farmer, her mother came from a family who served in the Massachusetts state government, and Anthony also had seven brothers and sisters. Anthony found her passion for teaching, but she ultimately decided that she wanted to help end slavery and work to improve social conditions. Through her activism, Anthony became one of the main leaders of the Women's Suffrage Movement, and she also founded numerous organizations including: the American Equal Rights Association (1866), the National Woman Suffrage Association (1869), and the National American Women's Suffrage Association, that emerged from combining several women's suffrage groups in 1890.

Although Anthony took on various leadership roles, it all started with her first public speech. In 1848, she gave her first public speech to a group called the Daughters of Temperance. The Daughters of Temperance and the Women's Suffrage Movement were both seen as radical causes in the nineteenth century. Anthony's family believed that drinking was sinful, and The Daughters of Temperance stood up for stronger liquor laws. They viewed the effects that drunkenness had on families as a major social problem and these women took a pledge to not use or buy alcohol, while also advocating abstention from alcohol use in their community. Anthony was later elected as president of one branch of the Daughters of Temperance. The passages below are from her first public speech.

Primary Source

Susan B. Anthony, First Public Address, 1848

Welcome Ladies, to this, our Hall of Temperance. You have been invited to meet with us this afternoon and for what purpose have you come hither? Are you here to listen to the advancement of new truths, or to hear old ones eloquently portrayed? permit me timely to advise you, that you are destined to disappointment and tell you as nearly as I can, what were our motives in soliciting our friends to mingle with us this afternoon. We feel that the cause we have espoused, is a common cause, a cause in which you, with us are deeply interested, and We would that some means were devised, by which our brothers & sons shall no longer be [exposed] allured from the right, by the corrupting influence of the fashionable sippings, of wine & brandy those sure destroyers of mental and moral worth, and by which our Sisters and daughters may no longer be exposed to the Vile arts of the gentlemanly appearing gallant…

Our motive is to ask of you, council in the formation, and cooperation in the carrying out, of plans, which may produce a radical change in our moral Atmosphere. We, who call ourselves Daughters of Temperance, and who are united into one Sisterhood, by for the promotion of our great causes, the cause of Virtue, Love & Temperance, [have] do from week to week meet here to encourage each other in the way of well doing.

It is the assurance that 'God will speed the Right' that inspires us with courage to go onward. 'Truth will prevail.' Is not the Cause of Virtue, love & Temperance, on the side of Truth, it is & must be, then why doubt its ultimate triumph, or why hesitate to do all in your power to hasten the day when Intemperance with its slow and noiseless step shall no more be permitted to enter our family circles, [and] to bind its first cords with a touch too gentle to be felt. - If such an influence has gone forth, then have [What better is Society that you have thus from week to week] we not sacrificed our time in vain, No! Happy are we to be thus privileged to spend a swiftly passing hour of each weak in the society of those who profess a fellow feeling of sympathy for suffering humanity. We count it no waste of time, to go forth through our streets, thus proclaiming our desire for the advancement of our great cause. You, with us no doubt feel that Intemperance is the blighting mildew of all our social connexions, You would be most happy to speed on the time, when no wife shall watch with trembling heart and tearful eye the slow, but sure descent of her idolized companion, down to the loathsome haunts of drunkenness. You would hasten the day when no Mother shall have to mourn over a darling son, as she sees him launch his bark on the circling wave of this mighty whirlpool.

Now ladies, all we would do, is to do all in our power, both individually & collectively to [similar] harmonize and happify our Social system. And we are fully persuaded, after having been organized one year, that for females to unite and carry out the principles of our Order, is the most effectual method of [brining about] establishing those customs in our Social intercourse, which shall better [conform] conduce to the greatest good of the whole. We must remember that we live not for self alone, and that we are accountable to the great Author of all, not only for our own actions, but for the influence which they may have upon those with whom we associate. We now ask of you candidly & seriously to investigate the matter, and decide for yourselves, whether the object of our Union be not on the side of right, and if it be, then one and all, for the sake of erring humanity, come forward and speed on the right. If you come to the conclusion that the end we wish to attain is right, but are not satisfied with the plan adopted, then I ask of you to devise means by which this great good may be more speedily accomplished, and you shall find us ready with both heart and hand to cooperate with you. In my humble opinion, all that is needed to produce a complete Temperance and Social reform in this age of Moral Suasion, is for our sex to cast their United influence into the balance.

Ladies: there is no Neutral position for us to assume. If we avow not our desire to promote this noble enterprise, both by precept and example then is our influence on the side of Intemperance. If we say we love the cause and then sit down at our ease, surely do our actions speak the lie. If you can devise means by which, our wish my be better and more speedily accomplished then surely your [will have the] generosity will prompt you to enlighten us, but if no better method presents itself to your mind, [then] will you not with us unite and give your influence to aid on this great work [of Temperance reform].

How to cite

Anthony, Susan B. “Image 1 of Susan B. Anthony Papers: Speeches and Writings, 1848-1895; 1848, First Public Address.” The Library of Congress. Accessed October 1, 2021. https://www.loc.gov/resource/mss11049.mss11049-006_00574_00585/?sp=1&st=text.